Index to be added when we have more than one stage.
Untamed Forest: Stage one elites (named to be added):
Crazed Druid:
Crazed Druid is a relatively straightforward fight. She has an accelerating 3-turn heal-over-time and an avoidance debuff to ensure hits always land, but it doesn't really build up power. When it hits 100 mana, sje always uses an extra-damaging DOT. At level 68, this deals 675-900 damage per turn and lasts for 3 turns. Blocking will not prevent application of the DOT, so be prepared. She's a pain to fight, but it doesn't have any tricks that require tactics more advanced than "apply violence until problem goes away". However, do not bring a tank that relies exclusively on evasion for survival into this fight and expect it to do well.
Crazed Druids seem to be the only unnamed enemy that will ever drop Enchanted Cloth, though chests may hold it.
Ancient Ent:
The Ancient Ent is a tank-like enemy who builds up power as the fight progresses. When the wrathful fury buff appears, make sure your tank, at the minimum, has their guard up (using block, or having either the ice shield buff from water or the thorny shield skill from earth active), as their next strike is guaranteed to be a critical hit and will cause a 5-turn stun unless you block or dodge it. While the strike will generally favor targeting your tank, it may hit anyone in your party. It can be taunted to hit a specific target, since it is an attack. The next turn, the Ent will gain a rank in the Fury permabuff, which will increase as the fight progresses. Each rank increases physical damage by 4%. If there is a cap, I have not reached it, but I have heard it is higher than 12 stacks.
Upon reaching 100 mana, the Ancient Ent will use Bark skin, protecting themselves from damage. The buff does not timeout. At level 68, it will prevent 6,656 damage with a fresh buff. This means that light's, earth's, and shadow's skills that heal based on damage dealt will not work until you break it down.
However, it will also drain mana, preventing the Ent from accumulating copies of buff, meaning that no matter how slowly you take it down, damage will slowly pile up in between buffs. Of course, slow-and-steady taken to such extremes may result in too many Fury stacks to handle, assuming there is not a cap on those. (If there is, and you have encountered it, please let me know.)
Still, the main thing stopping sufficient application of violence from working is the wrathful fury buff, and if you block at the right time, you should have no issues with slaying this ancient tree.
Ancient Ents seem to be the only unnamed enemy that will ever drop Ancient Timber, though chests may hold it.
Nightfall Captain:
Nightfall Captains are generally held to be the most dangerous elites in this phase. They have a basic attack, "Precision strike", which afflicts the target with a minor Damage over time effect for the remainder of the fight.
In addition, when they hit 100 MP, they will use a skill which will give them 100% evasion, effectively dodging all attacks[1], in addition to 100% crit rate, meaning every attack will be a crit. Since they are faster than most pets, you should use Quick Attack on that turn to give them one last bit of pain before they go.
To make their toolset more of a nuisance, they can also use "Bind Wounds" under some esoteric condition, allowing for healing a significant portion of their health. (9k when fought at level 68) Thankfully, they do not use the skill often. (well, actually, upon further observation it seems to be the second turn every odd numbered vanish. The first, the third, etc. This would be turn 11, 35, and so on, I believe, but don't quote me on those numbers. Just keep track of which vanish you're on, odd or even.)
You should probably block while the buff is in effect, as they will land crits on any party member who does not either have block, thornshield, or ice shield in effect, and your attacks would miss anyways. Once the buff ends, you can resume violence until they're finally dealt with. If you're more of a gambling sort, this is also a good time to use mend, or just accept the crits and try to swing for the face regardless.
Nightfall Captains seem to be the only unnamed enemy that will drop Tempered Steel, though chests may hold it.
[1] This will not protect them from DOTs, and it is conceptually possible to hit them if your accuracy bonus beats their base avoidance chance. However, in most cases it is not possible to do at high enough chances to be worth the effort.
Named:
Malfarian the Augur:
120,000 HP
150 MP
Minions: Sola and Luna:
[Appearances May vary, this may not be what your instance of the pets looks like.]
[I'm pretty sure it's permanently changed]
Solas:
[Old]
Luna:
[Old]
20,000 HP or 30,000 HP (The first fight it was both 20,000 HP, since then it's generally been one 20,000 HP and one 30,000 HP. I have no idea what decides this.)
50 MP
Malfarian comes with two Ferrikki minions, named Solas and Luna. Each has a unique skill Solar/Lunar light, which buffs damage from celestial fire. Like the druids who spawn in his place, Malfarian also uses ensnaring roots and celestial light. Celestial light heals him for more than the druids, however. He uses celestial fire when they reaches full mana, but as his mana pool is 150 mana, itll take him a while to get to use it. Its more powerful than the druidic version, dealing slightly over 1000 damage per turn at level 68. That might spell doom if his minions have placed their debuffs on you, since that means 3000 damage per turn, which could spell doom to even a tank who isn't in perfect condition to start with. If there are tricks beyond that, I managed to avoid them by accident, and as such cannot give advice on how to deal with them.
You might want to take out the minions first, since celestial fire is a lot weaker without their debuffs. Either way, show him all your best violence and he should go down without too much hassle.
Oakstout the gnarled
HP 200,000
MP 100
Minion: Enraged Forest Sprite:
HP 24,000
MP 50
[You know what forest sprites look like. His minions look exactly the same.]
For the most part, Oakstout the Gnarled uses the same tricks his elites do, so I'll copy it for those who don't want to have to cross reference. However, his stun ability seems to favor hitting slot 3 more than the Ancient Ents, or I just had bad luck. As such, making your entire party block when it gleams may prove wise even if you're the type to play aggressively.
When the wrathful fury buff appears, make sure your tank, (or first slot party member) at the minimum, has their guard up (using block, or having either the ice shield buff from water or the thorny shield skill from earth active), as their next strike is guaranteed to be a critical hit and will cause a 5-turn stun unless you block or dodge it. While the strike will generally favor targeting your tank, it may hit anyone in your party, and can be taunted to hit a specific target, since it is an attack. It can also probably be evaded, but I wouldn't make plans around the possibility. The next turn, Oakstout will gain a rank in the Fury permabuff, which will increase as the fight progresses. Each rank increases physical damage by 4%. If there is a cap, I have not reached it, and it is no lower than 21 stacks.
Upon reaching 100 mana, Oakstout will use Bark skin, protecting themselves from damage. The buff does not timeout, but can be dispelled by doing sufficient damage. At level 68, it will prevent 6,656 damage with a fresh buff. This means that light's, earth's, and shadow's skills that heal based on damage dealt will not work until you break it down.
However, it will also prevent Oakstout from building up mana beyond 10 to accumulate copies of buff, meaning that no matter how slowly you take it down, damage will slowly pile up in between buffs. Of course, slow-and-steady taken to such extremes may result in too many Fury stacks to handle, assuming there is not a cap on those. (If there is, and you have encountered it, please let me know.)
In addition, Oakstout seems to have a 2-turn stun that triggers on a natural crit.
Still, the main thing stopping sufficient application of violence from working is the wrathful fury buff, and if you block at the right time, you should have no issues with slaying this ancient tree. Well, that's true, but they can be a lot more dangerous than the Ancient Ents they presumably lead. You might not be able to manage sufficient application of violence with a fresh-out-the-gate lv.60 party.
His minions seem to use the traditional repertoire of forest sprite tricks, only more powerful healing and more damaging attacks- though not by that much. They add into the damage, but aren't super-offensive in their own right. On the other hand, killing them is a lot easier than killing Oakstout himself and you don't really want them adding more damage, so killing them might be wise.
Trivia: Unlike Ancient Ents, Oakstout uses an avatar item combination, and as such has a gender in their image code. However, as it is not visible and they are strongly associated with the Ancient Ents, I have assumed that their gender does not matter. This does mean that unlike an Ancient Ent, it will likely be possible to dress your avatar up like Oakstout, however.
Eleane the Duelist:
100,000 HP
100 MP
Minion: Nightfall Vicar
30,000 HP
50 MP
Unfortunately, Eleane is quite tough, and she beat me the first two times I fought her. As such, it is worth noting she should probably not be fought without either potions in substantial quantities, a team optimized for fighting her, superior gear to what is readily available at the time of this writing (named-dropped epics, later-zone rares), or a party that has hit level 65. Proficiency levels may also make her far easier to take out.
However, one cheesy trick to boost your chances does exist- Aryth's spire potions. If you can bring a decent stack of the associated buffs into the fight, you're going to hit the ground running. (If you are doing this, run from every fight that doesn't get to the battle screen, once on battle screen blast the enemies into the ground, take the shortest path, etc. It's a cheap tactic, though it's not banned.)
Her tricks are basically the same as a regular captain: An escalating-but-minor DOT, a 10-turn DOT from one of her other skills, vanish for 100% avoidance and 100% crit-rate. However, her Quickness is even higher- quick attacks may not connect before she vanishes as a result of this, unlike with a captain. In addition, her bind wounds skill is 66% more effective than the captains, healing her for 15k at level 68. The big issue, though, is that her stat boosts make a major difference, dragging out the fight and increasing losses even if you were to fight her properly.
Ironically, its probably not her non-trivial damage potential that truly makes her such a devastating threat, but rather her incredible tankiness. Despite on paper being far less effective a tank than Oakstout, vanish makes her a devastating threat, and bind wounds makes her potentially impossible to wear out if you cannot manage enough damage to keep up. This is made worse by her choice in minions.
Nightfall vicars can heal Eleane, by giving her a regen buff. (Maybe can also actually directly heal her, but I haven't seen evidence of this) As such, they should probably be taken out first. (since at level 68, each regen buff will heal between 3375-4500 over the course of 5 turns, and they could keep it up indefinitely. On the other hand, if you think you can beat those numbers and it's more practical to batter her down and ignore them, that is an option. ) Their effects are compounded by the fact that they can also heal each other, meaning you need to actually focus on taking them out to do much to them. They are an enhanced version of Nightfall menders, and their healing has scaled up significantly. Theres not really much else to be said about them. Except "die in an explosive fireball, you jerks!", which is really something more to be said to them than about them. |
